The Ancient Homeland

16

     Pitch black, an infinite void of emptiness laid before your eyes, a single and barely visible light off in the distance hovered in the air far away, it was the only thing to barely illuminate your surroundings. An endless chasm of dampness and floating wisps of grey particles, that were only to bring upon deformed and misshapen sorrows, surrounded you.
In the void you stood, darkness suffocating your every breath and shiver. In it you stepped, hoping to feel something, but coming up empty-handed, much to your dismay.
Ankle-high water splashed at your feet, the first feeling of something true helped ease your racing heart. At least you could feel something, instead of nothing. A cold shiver ran up your spine at the thought of feeling nothing in this abyss that knew no concept of time and emotion.
You stepped once more, the splash of the water hitting your feet was the only thing to echo throughout the darkness, managing to reverberate back to you after what seemed to be moments. Your heart raced and your mind lurched a million miles a minute, the suffocating feeling becoming too much as you began to close in on yourself. You collapsed to the surface below you, expecting to be met with a cold watery puddle. Instead, you fell through it, panic rising in your throat as you shut your eyes as tightly as possible as you didn't know what to expect.
You fell down and down, down, down and down, the pit in your stomach merely growing as you pinch your eyes shut. As you fell through the air, a fleeting hope rising inside you that maybe you could grab a hold of something to stop your fall. As the stale wind whipped past your face at unrelenting speeds, you dared to open your eyes quickly. After only looking for an instant, you clamped your eyes closed quickly at the sight, vision burning at the sudden brightness of the area.
The area was no longer a pitch-black expanse, now a blinding white took its place. You tried to scream, cry, or even shout out in pure desperation, but nothing escaped.
   You didn't know what was up and what was down as you continued to fall at overwhelming speeds.
As you dropped endlessly, a booming voice surrounded you, making you silently cry out in surprise. 
   "Y/N! Get to safety!" The familiar voice shouted out. Your heart lept as the recognition settled in. Master, you thought.
  Over the years, you hadn't allowed yourself to think of your Master, fearing that guilt and sorrow were to follow; you forced yourself to only look forward, not behind. And you were right, about the guilt.
The resounding cacophony of blasters firing about, cries and screams of utter anguish infiltrated your sense, the volume at full blast. The sounds of the collapse had come back to haunt you in the worst way possible.
   "There's the Jedi Master!" You heard a Stormtrooper shout out through it's urgent yet muffled tone.
Amidst it all, salty tears began to whip from your eyes, past you and above into the white space. You tried to curl into yourself in the air, hoping to drown out the sounds by not seeing the space around you, but it was to no avail.
Your Master's deafening outcry of suffering resounded throughout the span. You already knew what they had done, but you did your best to block out the thoughts by visualizing a dark wall. That didn't work either, so you fastened your eyes closed, tears falling freely now as images of your suffering Master writhed in agony flickered in and out if your mind.
    "Where is your Padawan!?" A trooper confidently shouted out, sounding like he had seized the opportunity to torture your Master in their final moments. Anger boiled inside you as you wished to torment the trooper who had wronged your Master.
   "You... Will n-never kn...ow..." Your Master's voice choked out through the empty white void; a bloody cough violently racking their body. You inaudibly cried out in grief, knowing nobody could hear you and that you couldn't save your Master, no matter how hard you tried.
Your Master died alone, yet you lived on, physically unscathed by the horrors of your past, but you were mentally tortured every night when you laid to rest; secluded with your thoughts, which was a deadly combination indeed.
Sobs fatigued your body as you dropped through the never-ending air. You didn't understand anything, didn't understand this, why was this happening? Why was this so vivid? Was this truly real, or just a night terror you were suffering from?
You viciously cried out in alarm when a warm and wonderful voice broke through the ear-splitting stillness.
   "Y/N?" Cal's soft voice greeted your ears, and the dazzling white faded into a dull grey to a black. After a breath, you opened your eyes hesitantly, afraid to be swept into another nightmarish hell. But instead, a deeply concerned Cal sat beside you, stress clearly evident in his posture and eyes. He sat there in a foldable chair, eyes downcast and hair strewn about precariously.
   "H-hey..." You weakly croaked out, prompting Cal to shoot his head up and relief to flood over his features. He glowed a fatigued smile that was still just as amazing as the others. You moved to sit up but a tremendous pain shot up your back, provoking you to wince intensely in pain. Cal grew panicked, moving to place his roughed hands across your shoulders to try and calm you.
    "D-don't move!! You're hurt pretty bad... You went all rag-doll when the walker went down. The metal in that s-shitty walker didn't help either, you did something to your back and I don't know what... but Cere made me go on with the mission and s-she was all upset and God damn she never looked so mad at herself for letting you go on your first mission without any training and oh my God Y/N you don't know w-what you put me through, fu-" You moved your hand to cut off Cal's anxious rambling. You giggled lightly to try and lighten the mood, but also at Cal's cursing, which you found quite alluring, but that was for another day...
   "Cal, I'm ok!" You said cheerfully, hoping to ease some of Cal's uncertainty. "I don't know exactly what I did, but I'll pull through with you by my side, and it was nobody's fault but mine. I jumped into it and didn't think twice, but it's alright. And don't go worrying about me you big cutie!" You explained. After a beat, you continued. "Also, what was this about what I put you through??" You asked jokingly, lightly tapping your chin in mock thought. Cal's cheeks tinted a light pink for what felt the nth time and ran a nervous hand through his hair.
"Did you call me a cutie?" Cal implored, hope clearly evident in his voice, a goofy smile making its way across his face. His cheeks were still a nice pink, which made you laugh and smile brilliantly. You gingerly lifted your hand to barely pinch Cal's cheek.
"Of course I did! How could you not be?" You exclaimed in fake exasperation, making Cal and you laugh warmly. You gently rested your head back down, a new and sudden wave of exhaustion hitting you.
"Are you ok? You were fidgeting and mumbling in your sleep, and I didn't know what to do..." Cal trailed off, his eyes filled with worry as he looked down at you. He tenderly took ahold of your hand, affectionately caressing the back of it with his thumb to make you feel calm. You smiled wearily, heart buzzing at the touch.
"N-not really... but let's not talk about that now, I don't want to dampen the mood, " you said quietly, eyelids becoming heavy as you struggled to stay awake. You fought it as best you could, you wanted to talk to Cal, and you definitely didn't want to have another nightmare. Cal chuckled cutely as you failed to continue your sentence, too focused on trying to stay awake to remember what you wanted to say next.
"Go to bed Y/N..." Cal mumbled lovingly, making your cheeks stain pink once more.
"But I want to talk to you, Cal..." You mumbled back, forcing yourself to look up and into his stunning eyes.
Cal chuckled, "We can talk later Y/N... Rest now." Cal said, tilting his head slightly as he fondly squeezed your hand.
You sighed in defeat, knowing Cal would force you to sleep if you said no. "Could you maybe stay with me until I fall asleep..?" You murmured out just above a whisper. Cal smiled brightly in response and nodded his head.
"Of course..." He whispered softly, occasionally gazing at you adoringly, keeping watch over you dutifully as you slipped into a cozy and dreamless slumber.